HP5+ development / lesson 1 (newbie)

semilog said:
I have used it (in the distant past) as powder, but for some reason I thought I'd seen a liquid version on the shelves of my local retailer. Must have been hallucinating.
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Your mention of it as a liquid struck a chord, which is why I asked. I seem to recall a developer available in both powder and liquid form. But I guess I'm the one hallucinating. Or perhaps the Ilford liquid developer is called 'this' and it has the same characteristics as 'that', a powder developer.
 
what is stock developer and what is non stock?
if i mix powder ID-11 with water it's going to be concentrated and then i need to mix it with water to make 1:1?
it's confusing a little
 
smile said:
what is stock developer and what is non stock?
if i mix powder ID-11 with water it's going to be concentrated and then i need to mix it with water to make 1:1?
it's confusing a little
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"if i mix powder ID-11 with water it's going to be concentrated"= stock

"then i need to mix it with water to make 1:1" = working solution
 
Easy way to keep your chemicals at 20 degrees (as long as the air temp is 20 or below) is to get a nice tub of water and put it aside in your basement. Use an aquarium heater (I bought mine for 5) to warm the temp to 20 (keep a thermometer in the tub) and keep in the water a big 5L jug of water and your dev. You never need to screw around with heating up, or cooling things down again.
 
dfoo said:
Easy way to keep your chemicals at 20 degrees (as long as the air temp is 20 or below) is to get a nice tub of water and put it aside in your basement. Use an aquarium heater (I bought mine for 5) to warm the temp to 20 (keep a thermometer in the tub) and keep in the water a big 5L jug of water and your dev. You never need to screw around with heating up, or cooling things down again.
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i live in a small apartment so i have "to screw around with heating up, or cooling things down" 😀
actually i don't imagine yet how to keep temperature stable for about 20 minutes. i need to look through youtube for some advices.
but the way what is the critical temperature deviation when developing HP5 in ID-11
 
Another vote for HC-110. Great developer for HP5+. Very versatile and forgiving. Use as a one-shot. This page is an excellent resource, particularly the advice on separating the concentrate into small glass bottles for longer storage:
http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/hc110/

If you're just starting out, simple is better. Use a non-hardening fixer like Ilford Rapid Fixer. Water for stop bath (I do three cycles with 30 seconds of agitation). Final rinse with the Ilford wash method, which is detailed on their data sheets. Final rinse in distilled water with a bit of Photo Flo added, hang to dry.

Precise temperature control really isn't all that important except for the development phase. I always make sure the developer is at 20 degrees C and keep the tank in a plastic wash basin (filled with water at 20C) in between agitation cycles. But don't sweat the fixer and water for stop/wash, as long as it's within a few degrees of your developer you will be fine.
 
smile said:
i live in a small apartment so i have "to screw around with heating up, or cooling things down" 😀
actually i don't imagine yet how to keep temperature stable for about 20 minutes. i need to look through youtube for some advices.
but the way what is the critical temperature deviation when developing HP5 in ID-11
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Try to keep it within 0.5 degrees C. Very easily done if the temperature of your water bath is close to room temperature. If it drifts a bit outside of that it's not a big problem.

I actually change my target development temperature based on the season because of the effect on tap water temperature. So in the winter it's always 20C. By late summer, I'm up to 24C and I just shorten the time by 30% (this is also on the film data sheets). Doing this has the added advantage of limiting the temperature drift because your water bath will be closer to room temperature.

Black and white film is very forgiving of minor exposure and development errors. Having said this, it is good to be consistent so you can identify the source of development problems when they happen.
 
typhillips said:
Another vote for HC-110. Great developer for HP5+. Very versatile and forgiving.
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Yes. That's what I use.

5402772669_b1ca8d8e45.jpg


ISO 400 | 11 minutes in dilution H @ 20C (Massive Development Chart gives a starting time of 10 minutes)
 
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Don't scare the guy off 🙂 Its not that important. Start at 20 degrees, and as long as you don't develop at reasonable room temperature (ie: around 20) things will be fine. The development only lasts 10-12 minutes with D76/XTOL so the developer won't change temp that much.

As for HC110 I don't recommend it for a beginner. D76 is significantly simpler (no measuring out 10ml of developer and such). Mix up the D76. Take 250ml, add 250ml of water and pour it in the tank. Invert every 30s for 5s, develop for around 10 minutes. Very simple. You also don't need a stop, use water (agitate for 30 seconds). Then pour in the fix wait 10 minutes with a few agitations along the way. No need to get too complicated.
 
^------ Right!

Get some quick success. But DO start a notebook recoding what you've done (film/EI, developer mix date/dilution/temp/time/notes), and keyed to the roll number. As you get more serious you'll want to get more careful with process control, and to understand how changing your procedures influences your results. A good notebook is the way to do this. My notebook is just a simple Excel spreadsheet with the headings above as column names.
 
dfoo said:
Don't scare the guy off 🙂 Its not that important. Start at 20 degrees, and as long as you don't develop at reasonable room temperature (ie: around 20) things will be fine. The development only lasts 10-12 minutes with D76/XTOL so the developer won't change temp that much.
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Well said.


dfoo said:
As for HC110 I don't recommend it for a beginner. D76 is significantly simpler (no measuring out 10ml of developer and such). Mix up the D76. Take 250ml, add 250ml of water and pour it in the tank. Invert every 30s for 5s, develop for around 10 minutes. Very simple. You also don't need a stop, use water (agitate for 30 seconds). Then pour in the fix wait 10 minutes with a few agitations along the way. No need to get too complicated.
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For me, powdered developers are a hassle. Starting with warm water, mixing in the powder with a funnel, stirring until all the lumps are gone, then topping of with water, yuck. What a pain, IMHO! Liquid developers are a piece of cake. With HC-110, fill up your graduate to 480mL with 20 deg C water, add 7.5mL of HC-110 concentrate (dilution H) with a child medicine syringe, mix it up and voila! You're ready to go. HP5+ gets 10 minutes at box speed.

It's personal preference, though. Either way, you can't go wrong as far as results are concerned. D76 is THE classic developer.
 
calebk said:
Starting off, I found powder to be a hassle too. Pouring HC into a measuring cylinder isn't so tough, is it?
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It's nearly impossible. So use an oral syringe instead, as typhillips suggests.

Buy little medicine bottles with the top that accommodates an oral syringe. You can get the bottles and syringes at your local pharmacy. Transfer the HC110 syrup from the HC110 bottle to the medicine bottles, filling the bottles to the top to minimize air. Draw from the medicine bottles with the syringe whenever you develop. Piece O' Cake.
 
J J Kapsberger said:
It's nearly impossible. So use an oral syringe instead, as typhillips suggests.

Buy little medicine bottles with the top that accommodates an oral syringe. You can get the bottles and syringes at your local pharmacy. Transfer the HC110 syrup from the HC110 bottle to the medicine bottles, filling the bottles to the top to minimize air. Draw from the medicine bottles with the syringe whenever you develop. Piece O' Cake.
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Somehow, I've been doing okay with a measuring cylinder. I don't know why but yeah. Maybe it's the fact that my cylinder is a small one. Heh.
 
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